Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coupling to attach to a faucet of a plumbing system in a recreational vehicle to enable a non-toxic antifreeze to be pumped into the plumbing system and to flush in a reverse direction through the recreational vehicle and a method of using the coupling according to the present invention.
Description of Related Art
The majority of recreational vehicles (RV) being used today contain the modern conveniences such as a kitchen sink and a bathroom complete with sink and shower and therefore have a plumbing system throughout the RV. If the RV is stored in a cold climate one faces the task of winterizing the RV each year. Winterizing is a process of draining the water out of the RV and installing RV antifreeze into the plumbing circuit to prevent it from freezing. This process of winterizing varies depending on how the RV plumbing was designed but in most cases can be a long process that requires the use of specialty tools, additional components such as a hot water by pass kit and a considerable amount of RV antifreeze. In any case, this process will vary from one RV to another and the process for doing so may be questionable or difficult for the RV owner figure out.
Generally, three methods exist for RV winterizing. One method is to simply put enough antifreeze into the fresh water hold tank to make it possible to run antifreeze through the lines like water. The problem with this method is the amount of RV antifreeze that is required. Bear in mind that an RV has two hold tanks, one for fresh water and one for hot water. When the fresh water hold tank is filled and the water pump turned on the first thing it does, by design is pump water to the hot water hold tank until it is filled, this is an automatic process and can't be controlled by the operator. The hot water hold tank can have a capacity of five or six gallons. Consequently, it would take in excess of five to six gallons to have enough antifreeze remaining to pump some of it through the lines and up to faucets. Therefore the drawback to this method is the amount of RV antifreeze required.
The next method is similar to the one explained above but employs the use of a hot water bypass kit. These kits use a combination of fittings and lines to hook the two lines that would normally go to the inlet and outlet of the hot water tank together. By doing so you are able bypass the hot water hold tank in an effort to reduce the amount of antifreeze needed to do the job. There are three drawbacks to this method. One is that it can be and generally is a lot of work to install the kit because access to the hot water hold tank is usually difficult. The kit also must be removed before using the RV in the following spring. The other drawback is that by bypassing the hot water hold tank no antifreeze gets into the tank to prevent any residual water from freezing. While winterizing usually involves draining this tank some residual water can be left behind, especially if the drain plug is not at the very bottom of the tank.
A third method involves installing a pump to the city water lines. In addition to having a fresh water hold tank most RV's have an inlet to which a pressurized line can be installed which is commonly referred to as “city water”. In other words a hose for example can be installed to supply pressurized water to the RV so that when parked in an RV park the water being used is not coming from the fresh water hold tank but rather is coming from a pressurized source similar to a residential home. The benefit of this method is that the pump isn't needed when parked. As mentioned this method involves installing a pump to this line to pump antifreeze into this line. If the faucets in the RV are open while doing this the pump can pump antifreeze all the way up and through the faucets. The drawback to this method is that it too requires either the use of a bypass kit, which does not allow antifreeze into the hot water hold tank, or this method requires a large amount of RV antifreeze.
In addition, when the RV is being prepared for use the next spring or summer the antifreeze needs to be removed so as to not pollute the fresh water. Although it is non-toxic antifreeze it is not desirable to have it in the fresh water.
It would therefore be advantageous to have a system and method that takes the guesswork out of the winterizing process and would offer an easy and certain method to both winterize the RV and rinse out the majority of the antifreeze when it is being prepared for use the following year. It would also be advantageous that this method would not vary from one RV to another it would be the same for virtually any RV.